- Photoshop has a number

of selection tools

that can help us select objects

in the image based on the contents of the image

including the colors, the tones and the edges.

So in this first image,

I want to make some changes

to portions of the image

starting with a scarecrows pumpkin head.

In order to do this,

I'm going to select the object selection tool.

As soon as I select that,

it will enable the object finder

and Photoshop will try to find objects

in the image with the help of machine learning.

So as I position my cursor over these pumpkins,

we can see that Photoshop

is automatically identifying them as an object.

If I click on them,

it will load that as a selection.

If I wanted to add to the selection,

I could hold down the shift key,

and continue clicking.

But I actually want to select

the scarecrows head,

so I'll release the shift key,

and just click in order to select it.

Then on the layers panel,

I'm going to add

a hue and saturation adjustment layer.

I just want to change the hue a bit,

moving the pumpkin's head more towards red.

Now if I want to soften

the edge of the selection,

I can switch to the mask icon

on the properties panel,

and then increase the feather amount.

If I hold down the option key on Mac

or the alt key on Windows,

and we click on the mask,

we can watch as I move the feather slider

to the right,

how it softens the edge.

All right, I'll just back off a little bit there,

and toggle the visibility of the layer on again.

Now, if the object finder doesn't automatically

find the area that you're trying to select,

in this case, for example,

I want to select the pants,

not the entire scarecrow.

We can go in and manually

select one of these two modes,

either the rectangle or the lasso mode,

and then try to draw a selection

around the area that we want to select.

In this case, we can see that Photoshop

has kind of shrink wrap the selection

around the pants, but there's a lot of area

that's still selected that I don't want selected.

So let's see if there's maybe a better way.

I'm going to switch from the object selection tool

to the quick selection tool.

Now, we could try the magic wand tool.

It's a great tool.

It's been around forever,

and it's really useful when you're trying

to select large areas of uniform color,

like maybe a large swath of blue sky.

But with the pants in this image,

I think quick Select is going to be

a better choice

because it has edge detection built into it,

so not only is it selecting based on color,

but it will also look at the edges.

All right, I'm going to use Command + D to deselect.

So we're starting kind of with a blank slate,

and then I will position the tool

over the pants and then click,

and even if I release the cursor,

you'll notice there's a plus icon

because Photoshop has automatically swapped me

to the add two option for this tool.

So I'll just keep dragging

over the red areas here of the pants.

And each time I click on a color,

under the hood,

Photoshop is creating a color table.

So this tool actually gets more accurate

the more you use it.

So if I click here and it selects too much,

I'll just hold down the option key,

and then remove these colors.

And as I start removing, for example,

the background there and the hay,

it's going to refine that color table

and it will do

a better and better job of selecting.

Of course, we can always use these tools

in combination with say,

the lasso or the marque.

Just tap the L key,

that would give me the lasso tool.

Same shortcuts work, right?

Holding down the shift key is going to add

to the selection.

Holding down the option or the alt key

would subtract from the selection.

All right, I just want to darken down these pants.

So in the layers panel,

I will choose the brightness,

and contrast adjustment layer,

and then we'll just decrease

the brightness there a bit.

All right, I'll tap the W key

to return to the quick select tool.

And this time I'm going to drag it over

the jacket here.

Again, it's going to automatically give me

that plus or add two selection.

We've got a little too much here,

so I'll hold down the option key

to remove those color values.

And then let's add a color fill layer

from the bottom of the layers panel.

I'll use that adjustment icon again.

I'll choose solid color,

but we can see that it's just adding

a solid color over it.

I'm not seeing any of the luminosity

values underneath,

but I can still pick a blue color.

And then in the layers panel,

I'm going to change the blend mode to color,

so only the color values are affected,

and not the photograph

or the luminosity values underneath it.

All right, let's zoom into 100%

using command + 1.

And I'm going to switch to the paintbrush

by tapping the B key,

because I see there's some areas here

that I don't want to have that blue tint.

So in a layers panel, I'll target the mask,

and I'll just make sure that I'm painting

with black and I can paint over any of the areas

that I don't want to be affected

by that color fill layer.

I can also tap the X key.

So now I'm painting with white,

and I'll just paint in this area

'cuz I do want that to be affected.

You might think,

"Wait, why are you painting so much?

Sometimes it's just easier to paint

a large area and then tap the X key,

and come back in and subtract that area

as opposed to trying to go in with a really,

really small brush to get that little edge.

Oh, I also need to subtract this area here.

I didn't see that.

So let's remove that.

And then I'll use Command + 0 on Mac.

Control + 0 on Windows in order to zoom out.

So as we can see, Photoshop has several tools,

which can help create selections.

And even if they're not perfect

with just a single click,

it's great to know that we can always go in,

and refine them

using the other selection tools

or by painting in the mask.

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